The sponsor of our Guesthouse – a project ready to start – kindly agreed for us to use her money to face this emergency instead, to make sure that the poorest people around us are safe. According to our sponsor, it’s the poor that suffer the most during a pandemic like this.
Our sponsor was very concerned, and asked us to buy enough supplies to provide for the poor for 3 months, because if corona virus comes to Sangkhlaburi, we will not be able to conduct any outside activities, including relief work, for some time.
As you learned in the previous article, Zia Caterina is here at Baan Unrak, and when she heard about our relief work in the communities around us, she was eager to join and learn about the families we support. So she jumped in the back of the pickup truck of our expedition, with her characteristic joy, color, and humor!
For 4 days, our children and Zia left Baan Unrak with our pickup truck full of food provisions and reached the surrounding villages of bamboo huts in the jungle, among plantations of rubber trees.
Along the way, our children found a smart way to get cover from the scorching sun…!
We also brought food supplies to our Weaving Project workers, as the Baan Unrak Weaving Center is currently closed.
Among the people we help, some are disabled, others are too old, left alone, and not able to work anymore.
The children that travelled with Zia introduced her to the villagers. The contrast was quite striking, between Zia Caterina’s bold dresses, flower hat, balloons and bells and the people she met, most of whom may never before have met such a personality.
With no doubt, the encounter with Zia Caterina will remain in the memory of the villagers for a long time.
Zia charmed everyone as she went along, relating to their stories and asking questions about their children and lives.
The woman you see above was so happy and eager to give back to us, that to express her gratitude she offered us the only things she could: the fruits from a tree in her garden. Our children were very happy for it, and collected the fruits using a very clever tool!
Here you can see the stories from some of our former Relief expeditions: